New York Students Make Gains on Exams

Test results for third- through eighth-graders across New York improved last year amid concerns about the length of the exams and some errors on questions, according to data released by the state Tuesday.

Statewide results for the 2011-12 school year found 55.1% of students tested at or above the state’s bar for proficiency in English, up from 52.8% the prior year. In math, 64.8% were at or above the proficiency standard, up from 63.3%.

New York City also posted gains, with 46.9% of students proficient in English, up from 43.9%; 60% of students tested proficient in math, up from 57.3% last year. About 436,000 third- through eighth-graders in New York City took the English exam and approximately 445,000 took the math exam.

“The progress we see this year doesn’t give us a reason to rest — it gives us a reason to strive for even greater gains,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement. “There’s still much more work to do, but there’s no question our students are headed in the right direction.”

Test have scores fluctuated over the years based partly on the state’s determination of what score makes a student “proficient.” After scores spiked between 2007 and 2009, with more than 70% of city students scoring proficient on math and nearly 70% proficient on English, the state readjusted its calculations and the proficiency levels plummeted.

Bloomberg has trumpeted the improvements as evidence his model of school management — emphasizing school choice and judging performance based on test scores — has worked. The mayor is expected to address the scores at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Standardized test scores are increasingly used to judge the quality of not just students, but also schools and teachers. In New York City, test scores help determine whether students move on to the next grade. Schools are judged in part by how students scored on tests and whether they improved.

In addition, the exams were longer this year as the company newly hired to create the exams, Pearson PLC, incorporated questions that didn’t count but were being auditioned for use in future exams. The state also administered an additional test at many schools to try out questions for future exams.

That led to a noisy revolt from a small but increasing number of parents. This year, 113 students refused to take the math exam, and the same number refused to take the English exam, the city Department of Education said. That could mean students were absent and didn’t take makeup tests or arrived at school but didn’t take the test, a city official said.

Schools officials say they are holding teachers accountable for students’ results, a practice critics argue only this leads to more time spent on test preparation in classrooms. Earlier this year, on a day off of school, a few hundred parents and students held a protest outside Pearson’s offices.

Soon, principals will rate teachers based in part on whether their students have improved on exams. A 2010 law required New York school districts to come to agreements with their unions on the details of a new system to evaluate teachers. In January, after several years of delays, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he would withhold up to 4% of state funding from districts that haven’t reached agreements by Jan. 17, 2013.